Conventional bicycles are driven through actuating the foot pedal device by the rider with his hands for holding the handlebar assembly for moving-forward control of the bicycle. In the art, there are also bicycles which are driven by hands of the rider.
Chinese Patent No. ZL03284276.7 (Publication number CN2646017Y), for example, discloses a bicycle for body workout which comprises a handlebar assembly and a front axle; and further comprises a front boost device having a boost frame hinged on the handlebar assembly, a boost lever, a retractable push lever and a retractable pull lever which are hinged with the boost frame respectively, and a crankshaft mounted on a support frame which is fixedly connected with the handlebar assembly, wherein the crankshaft is hinged with a second end of each of the boost lever, the retractable push lever and the retractable pull lever, and has at its first end a sprocket wheel in connection with a overrunning clutch mounted on the front axle through a chain set. This workout bicycle can be actuated through pulls and pushes of the boost frame to move forward, thereby allowing the upper limbs to get exercised. However, this type of bicycle requires additionally the mounting of the front boost device that includes the crankshaft, the sprocket wheel and the chain, etc. on the handlebar assembly, which is complex structurally and costly.
European Patent No. EP 0 541 136A1 discloses a mechanism which converts a front idle wheel of a bicycle in general into a drive wheel. The mechanism enables to temporarily convert the front wheel into a drive wheel, comprising: a lever hinged in front of and on top of a frame of the bicycle; a handle-bar fixed to the lever together with a catch, with a mobile stopping tooth to block/release the handle-bar which can be swung on a vertical plane; transmission organs, comprising a chain which engages a free wheel coaxial and fixed to the front wheel for transmitting the alternate movement given to the handle-bar to the free wheel; elastic return means for returning to the original position of the handle-bar; and control means for controlling the mobile stopping tooth. Likewise, this type of bicycle requires additionally the mounting of elements such as free wheel and chain set, which is also complex structurally and expensive.
As can be seen, the prior art hand-driven bicycles are generally provided with a driving mechanism mounted on their front wheel, and the driving mechanism generally comprises a sprocket wheel and a chain and may drive the motion of the front wheel by hands. This mechanism is similar to the driving mechanism of sprocket wheel and chain which are actuated by foot pedals in the conventional bicycles, and is therefore complex in structure and high in cost.